Medicine prize for research on blood vessels

30 January 2018

Christer Betsholtz, Professor of Vascular and Tumour Biology at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University, is one of two recipients of the Louis-Jeantet Foundation’s 2018 Prize for Medicine.

The Louis-Jeantet Foundation was founded in 1982 according to the wishes of French businessman Louis Jeantet, who died of cancer in 1981.

The foundation finances the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine as well as a number of professorships at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Geneva.

Christer Betsholtz. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt

This year, the prize will be awarded to Christer Betsholtz, Professor at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University and to Antonio Lanzavecchia, Director of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Bellinzone, Switzerland. The foundation grants a prize sum of CHF 700,000, of which CHF 625,000 is for the prize recipient’s continued research and CHF 75,000 for their personal use.

Betsholtz studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms of angiogenesis, vessel permeability and other vascular functions during embryonic development, in adults and in diseases. His discoveries open new development possibilities for the treatment of diseases in the brain.